Short commentary on the events of the day, from Rob Lyons, writer for Spiked, and the man who brought you Precautionary Tales.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Piss off - we're full

A Tory councillor and parliamentary candidate, Ellenor Bland, has been suspended by the party for forwarding a piece of racist doggerel that suggested that people from Pakistan were getting rich off welfare payments. It finished with a picture of the white cliffs of Dover, emblazoned with the words 'Piss off - we're full!'

It took the party about 90 minutes from the time the story broke to suspend Mrs Bland. Dominic Grieve, the shadow solicitor general, told Sky News: 'Members of the party shouldn't be sending racist emails of any kind. [It was] suggested that it's lighthearted, but it seems to me it has an underlying unpleasantness. I consider it offensive.'

But that couldn't stop the chorus of disapproval from the other parties. Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat chair of campaigns and communications said: 'Despite David Cameron's best PR efforts, the Conservative party clearly continues to contain some deeply unpleasant elements.' The Lib Dems have reported the matter to the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE).

The irony is that, as noted elsewhere on spiked, the head of the CRE has been able to get away with equally derogatory remarks about the new immigrants to the UK, from Eastern Europe. And 'Piss off - we're full!' seems to be the official position of all the major parties. Primary immigration into the UK was largely outlawed decades ago and it is extremely difficult to get the right to remain in this country unless you have some family connection, you're fleeing in fear of your life from somewhere else, or you're from another EU country.

Now the home secretary, John Reid, has announced quotas for those who want to come from Bulgaria and Romania after these countries accede to the EU. It seems that 'racism' is no longer a matter of policy but etiquette.

Moreover, with environmentalism now the new black amongst politicos desperate for a sense of purpose, how long before the dread term 'overpopulation' ventures out from the green ghetto and goes mainstream?

In the meantime, how about this for a more suitable piece of doggerel?

A Tory sent a racist pome'We've got too many folks at home'Condemned by various MPsBut really, everyone agrees.